The Tea Party can survive Karl Rove's wrath, but being purged from Fox News could help kill it

The London Daily Telegraph ^ | February 7, 2013 | Dr. Tim Stanley

[2ndDivisionVet]

According to Politico, “a political colonoscopy is going on before our eyes.” Yuck. Karl Rove has set up a Super PAC to keep controversial conservatives from winning Republican primaries and the Senate leadership has established a “buddy system” to keep Tea Party congressmen in line (“buddy” as in “you should probably vote the way we tell you to, buddy…”). But the most important changes are taking place at Fox where heavyweights Sarah Palin and Dick Morris are out as contributors. A lot of this is post-election house clearing (CNN has moved staff around, too) but it also suggests that the GOP establishment is blaming the 2012 election loss on the Tea Party and the impolite Right.

Is its assessment correct? Yes and no. “Yes” in the sense that the outspoken weirdness of some Tea Party candidates shifted the balance of the Senate in the Democratic Party’s favour and “yes” in that they allowed Obama to play the culture war card so brilliantly against Mitt Romney. The margin of the 2012 election was decided by gender, race and age – and while the GOP did well with its old white guy base, Tea Party radicalism helped Obama to build a winning advantage among “everyone else”. And so moderates are now conspiring to silence the conservatives.

But, in defence of conservatives, the Republican Party did not actually run a Tea Party candidate in 2012. It ran a moderate from Massachusetts with a record of inventing Obamacare and supporting legalised abortion. Romney might have u-turned on all those positions, but the idea that the Tea Party hijacked the GOP nomination in 2012 is simply absurd...

[Yosemitest]

I agree.

We will never unify under "Establishment Republicans" .
"Establishment Republicans" have more in common with the Democrats, than they do with Conservatives.
The weak candidates are "Establishment Republicans", weak on national security, amnesty for illegals, abortion, and government spending.
"Establishment Republicans" scream "COMPROMISE".
And people who study the Bible know that COMPROMISE almost always leads to destruction.
These "Establishment Republicans" are being weeded out, one by one, and slowly but surely, the TEA Party is taking over.

Someone once said [We're] 'Not victims of "the Establishment." '
I disagree.
I ask you again:

Who was it that dumped all those negative adds on Conservative Candidates in the primary?
Who was it that constantly battered each leading Conservative in the primary with an average of three to one negative ads against our real candidates?
Who's money was dumped against the conservative choices?

It WAS Mitt Romney, leader of the "Establishment Republicans"
and it WAS the "Establishment Republicans" who funded all those negative ads against Conservatives.

So conservatives, the BASE of the Republican Party, WERE ' victims of "the Establishment." '

Take a good long look at where "Establishment Republicans" ALWAYS take us.



In 2013, Rove and the Super-PAC American Crossroads created the Conservative Victory Project for the purpose of supporting "electable" conservative RINO candidates.

I SAY AGAIN: Take a good long look(above) at where "Establishment Republicans" ALWAYS take us.

LOSER KARL ROVE HAS GOT TO GO !

[Josa]

I quit watching FOX after the election this year. Megan Kelly was just too darn giddy with excitement about obama’s win. Read recently where FOX’s ratings were at a 12 year low.

[Graewoulf]

Double PING: # 33 and 34. Enjoy!

[EDINVA]

Exactly what and who IS the “Tea Party?” There are dozens of organizations that cropped up in the Fall of ‘09 using the term “Tea Party” yet I’m not sure which are authentic. Who are the leaders of the Tea Party?

To me the Tea Party is more loosely connected individual citizens who opposed the outrageous growth of government, specifically Obamacare. Yet there’s no real structure or organization that demonstrates a viable political party (i.e., one that actually runs candidates for office vs. a movement affecting the outcomes of one party’s primaries).

I went to the 9/12/09 March on DC, to the “Kill Bill” march on the Capitol, and to the Beck/Palin affair at the Lincoln Memorial. I’ve yet to be asked to join any “Tea Party” nor have I been polled by anyone claiming to be the “Tea Party” about which candidate(s) I might support. WHO is endorsing candidates as the “Tea Party?” How does Rove know who to oppose? It’s all way too nebulous and rudderless IMO.

[Alamo-Girl]

Hmmmm .... thanks for sharing your insights, dear Graewoulf!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Graewoulf.

[painter]

"This administration came up with a policy on energy which had driven up the cost on everything. It was on the tongue of every black, white. yellow,and brown skined person living in the US....IT WENT UNTOUCHED in the 2012 campaign....WORSE YET IT IS STILL GOING UNCHALLANGED"

Gingrich was the only canidate who made a big deal about it,and look what happened to him. Rove and the GOPES destroyed him by calling him a right wing radical.

[Graewoulf]

You are welcome!

Rove is starting to play again the broken record of Left-Wing Republicans, and so it is time to call him out.

The Romney election was the last straw for those of us middle of the road Republicans that want the following:

NO National Debt, a balanced Federal Budget every year;
NO Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and Obama”care;”
NO aid to Dependent Children, Federal Disabilities for non-Federal workers;
NO Federal Aid to Schools;
NO department of Education, National Labor Relations Board;
NO Federal Housing Authority, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae;
NO Federal loans to Private Businesses;
NO Progressive Personal Income Tax System;
and NO Income tax on Interest and dividends.

This should decrease the size of the damned US Federal Government by about 40 % in 10 years.

To achieve this wonderful goal in 10 years would require an across the board cut of 40 % in year to year spending to ALL of the above Federal Welfare Programs EVERY YEAR for consecutive 10 Years.

If our sorry Federal Politicians do not do this soon, the World Bond Market will do it for them VERY soon.

[Graewoulf]

You are welcome!

Rove is starting to play again the broken record of Left-Wing Republicans, and so it is time to call him out.

The Romney election was the last straw for those of us middle of the road Republicans that want the following:

NO National Debt, a balanced Federal Budget every year;
NO Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and Obama”care;”
NO aid to Dependent Children, Federal Disabilities for non-Federal workers;
NO Federal Aid to Schools;
NO department of Education, National Labor Relations Board;
NO Federal Housing Authority, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae;
NO Federal loans to Private Businesses;
NO Progressive Personal Income Tax System;
and NO Income tax on Interest and dividends.

This should decrease the size of the damned US Federal Government by about 40 % in 10 years.

To achieve this wonderful goal in 10 years would require an across the board cut of 40 % in year to year spending to ALL of the above Federal Welfare Programs EVERY YEAR for consecutive 10 Years.

If our sorry Federal Politicians do not do this soon, the World Bond Market will do it for them VERY soon.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear Graewoulf!

[Tublecane]

Do these people read what they write? Obama was able to play the culture war card against Romney because of the Tea Party? Wha? Isn’t it more likely because he’s a rich white guy with a weird religion? Anyway, the fact that Romney stepped in it time and again along with the fact that he is an establishment guy and definitely NOT a Tea Partier demonstrates the opposite, if anything.

I don’t see any proof Dems kept the senate and White House because of victory in the culture war. Some Pubs absolutely lost because of it, or rather because of stupid things they said which just so happened to concern “social issues,” but some of them were establishment types. I’ve noticed an odd trend whereby anytime any Pub gets pilloried in the MSM, often through their own fault, suddenly they become Tea Partiers, no matter their history. The “outside the mainstream,” mainstream being defined as whatever libs believe, game is old hat. What’s new is that nowadays on top of being outside the mainstream just for being a Pub you are also automatically a Tea Partier.

Look who had the most “social issue” trouble in the nomination sweepstakes, post-Bachmann (who, being female, of course gets at least twice the torment): Santorum. He’s forever been a favorite target of gays, gay fellow travellers, and people freaked out by religion in general. But before he was an evil Pub, like the rest only a bit worse. Would you know from last year whether he was an establishment figure, or would he be one of those wacky, fringe Tea Partiers.

The easiest way to retain power is to paint anyone who wants to take it from you as unworthy, for their stupidity, craziness, evilness, etc. What gets to me is, okay, let’s say Palin is stupid. You ever listen to Joe Biden? They make fun of him with us, fine. But is there any of the pure horror at the prospect of Palin being near power? Do we question what Biden is doing in Washington at all, let alone first in line of succession? It’s decades he’s been there in positions of responsibility. Why won earth? Have you ever listened to Nancy Pelosi? Ever listened, I mean really listened, to even a genuinely smart guy like Newt? These people have no idea what they’re doing.